Thermal Conductivity in Vibrationally Excited Gases

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Abstract
Comparisons between experimental and theoretical values of the thermal conductivity for a series of nonpolar polyatomic gases show large discrepancies at higher temperatures where the vibrational contribution becomes increasingly important. Examination of various theoretical approaches indicates that the discrepancies can be attributed to approximating the coefficient characterizing the diffusion of vibrational energy, Dvib, by the self‐diffusion coefficient. The present theories cannot accurately predict Dvib, and its measurement is extremely difficult. Consequently, the approach taken in this paper is to obtain Dvib by using experimental values of the thermal conductivity. An attempt is made to correlate these values of Dvib with vibrational relaxation time, so that values of Dvib can be obtained for all nonpolar polyatomic gases.